Little Mermaid for the Bean

Early this past spring S found out that The Little Mermaid would be playing at the Tuacahn Theater down in St. George this summer.  He asked if I thought we should take Bean to go see it.  I absolutely said yes!  Initially we were going to take Boy with us, but the closer it got the more I realized how hard on him it would be to stay up so late (and that we might not be able to enjoy the show as much or at all.)  So we ended up leaving him home with grandma.  I have to admit, it was kind of nice it being just Bean and us.

It was a really quick trip.  We left the morning of the show (a Tuesday) and came back the following morning.  When we got to the hotel in St. George we immediately went swimming.  We tried to nap after that but it's kind of hard to get an excited 4 year old to rest so we left the hotel and found things to keep busy while we were waiting for show to start.  

We ended up finding this playground at a local elementary school.  It was shaded.  Like with a canopy.  I'd never seen such a thing before.  But I guess it makes sense when you live in a desert.

It is so absolutely beautiful down there.  I could seriously be happy living there...

We bought tickets to the pre-show dinner which started around 7 (which, might I add, is when we start getting this little girl ready for bed!)  I should mention now that Bean had no idea what we were seeing that night.  She immediately started noticing all of the Little Mermaid banners but didn't really put two and two together.

After dinner we still had about an hour to wait until the show started.  We found a spot where we could look behind the stage and see props.  I think she may have started figuring it out at this point.

Then when we were seated she really started to figure it out.  She asked if we were seeing The Little Mermaid and I told her 'yes'!  I took a picture of her reaction.  She was so excited!

The musical started and, I have to admit, it was pretty awesome!  I'd never seen a Disney movie-turned-musical before, but I really liked it.  Bean REALLY liked it!  Halfway through she looked up at me and said, with the biggest grin on her face, "Mom!  I'm really starting to feel sleepy!"  Every time the audience applauded, though, she'd still be on the edge of her seat clapping as fast as her little 4-year old hands would let her!

After the show, we got in line to meet the cast.  You should have seen the look on her face when she saw these two!  (And even more so when she realized she was going to be able to meet them!)  It totally made the trip!

Bean and I have this kind of weird obsession with the song 'Poor Unfortunate Souls' so we just had to meet Ursula!

I don't think we got back to the hotel until midnight.  I thought she might be too wired to fall asleep but only a few minutes after we turned out the lights, I could hear her softly snoring.  What a sweetheart!

I should add as an ironic end-note: remember how every time I have gone to St. George it has snowed?  I told S if it snowed on this trip I was never going back.   It was windy and a little chilly during the show, but no snow!  However, back home it did snow--third week of June.  So technically, somewhere in the state it snowed while we were in St. George...

Since my last post about Bean's vision problems, we had another eye doctor appointment.  We had been working so hard to do our part and Bean was being so compliant that I was sure the doctor was going to say that her vision had increased double what it had been since the last visit.  Just the opposite happened.  We found out that poor Bean's eyesight had basically plateaued.  The last six weeks of patching had barely made a difference.  My heart sank.

The doctor gave us two options: either we patch all day every day, or we patch for 4 hours a day along with giving Bean atropine eye drops in her good eye two times a week.  We asked Bean which she would prefer and she said, '4 hours of patching eye drops.'

So I thought 3 hours was going to be tough and all of a sudden we were looking at 4.  Bean handled the transition really well, though.  And luckily, eye drops weren't a new concept to Bean because she has had an eye infection before and had to use eye drops then.  These atropine eye drops are interesting, though.  Basically they are the same kind of thing that doctors use to dilate their patients eyes when they go in for a routine eye exam.  These must be super strength though because we give her a drop on Saturday and a drop on Sunday and her eyes pretty much stay like this for the whole week:

The result is that the 'good eye' is basically blurred 24/7, forcing her bad eye to work nonstop while she's awake.  We have no idea whether or not it's working, but she has an appointment at the end of this month and I'm really crossing my fingers this time.

It kind of freaked me out at first.  In a trauma situation one of the first things the doctors are looking for are blown or uneven pupils.  I told S that we'd better be really careful to not get into a car accident while she's on the drops because I'm pretty sure the emergency responders would freak out and she would be subject to all sorts of scans.

Summer in our Yard

Did anyone else ever run in the sprinklers when they were kids?  This was a huge part of my summer when I was a kid (that and putting the sprinkler under my neighbor's trampoline which, as I think about it now, probably wasn't the safest thing...)  I remember begging and begging my parents to get a swimming pool while I was growing up (thinking it was so easy--but they have a huge backyard!)  They said no.  I settled for running through the sprinklers.  This summer I decided to introduce Bean and Boy to one of my favorite childhood traditions.  Bean loved it.  Boy was a little hesitant and ended up just going and playing in the dirt instead.

I was surprised a week later when, during a massive rainstorm, Boy didn't even hesitate and walked right out into it.  He was soaked in a matter of seconds.  Bean quickly followed his lead.  The storm was over in about a minute and the sun was warm enough to completely dry them off by the time we went inside.  I love summer rain...

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So I've made it no secret how much I despise the deer in our area.  I don't know why it never occurred to me that they might be the reason the lower branches on our crabapple tree don't grow very well.  I looked outside one morning and saw this.  I was like, 'Busted!'  After I snapped the picture I scared the living daylights out of this deer in particular.  (Yes, I had a moment of gratification.)

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S and I were sitting out on our porch on the second longest day of the year when, out of nowhere, there was one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen.  It seriously rivaled those we saw in Costa Rica that fall.  It was over so quickly--I'm glad I had the sense to pull out my phone and take pictures before it was gone!

East Canyon

S's parents own a timeshare up at the East Canyon Resort, just north of Park City.  He used to go up there as a kid all of the time and I went with him several times while we were dating (we even went there for our Honeymoon) but it has been a really long time since we've been back.  In fact, a lot of the grandkids had never been up there.  So this year S's parents decided to reserve two condos and invited the kids and their families to come up.  It was only for 2 days, but those 2 days were so jam-packed full of fun.  I know my kiddos had a blast and I hope we do it again next year!

They have this really great fishing pond on their property that is stocked full of fish.  Best part is it's only for kids.  Our crew went up, set up the camping chairs, and started catching fish almost immediately!

Bean loved catching fish.  A girl after my own heart.  She even named them.  (Thankfully she wasn't too traumatized when we told her we were going to eat them later on.)

Boy and I spent a lot of time just walking around, but then we found the kid pole and he joined the rest of the fishermen.

While he didn't catch any fish on the practice pole, daddy helped him catch a fish later on using a real pole!  This little guy was a catch-and-release: I think at that point we had more fish than we knew what to do with.  I love this picture. 

We went back to the condos and S's dad cooked up all of those fish for lunch.  They were delicious!

Bean was so excited about fishing that she went back to the condo and drew a picture of her fish.

Later that day, we were lucky to have S's mom offer to stay behind with Boy while he napped.  The rest of us went to East Canyon reservoir.  S's dad brought their canoe.  Bean had a lot of fun riding around with her daddy and grandpa.

S's brother brought their jet skis.  Not only was it Bean's first time on one, it was S's and mine too.  They were alot of fun!

In the evenings we all ate outside.  Boy loves watermelon as much as his daddy does!

They even have a miniature golf course there.  The kids must have played two or three rounds.  Boy just had fun dropping the balls into the hole.

This was the first of many trips that we have planned for the summer.  It was a great way to start off summer vacation!